Masterwork Films uses AJA gear to bring consistency and flexibility to branded storytelling, keeping workflows simple and opening options to help companies connect with audiences.
Masterwork Films in Brighton, England find that branded cinematic shorts and documentaries are becoming a popular way for organisations to connect and engage with audiences. But for production teams, they may involve tight budgets and short timeframes, which has led Masterwork Film’s CEO Biro Florin to build a green screen virtual production studio.
Biro, a cinematographer and filmmaker, only established the company in 2024 and serves as its DP as well as CEO, handling film, commercial, masterclass projects for clients in the UK, US and Canada. Biro sees his studio as a genuine option for brands aiming to deliver believable compositions quickly and affordably.
Controlling Costs, Saving Time
He commented, “Green screen virtual production can prove costly if you’re building sets and virtual worlds from scratch that rely on LEDs. Instead, we try to strike a middle ground with our new studio, where we can get a nice output with stock and marketplace assets. Another advantage of executing green screen virtual production this way is that it minimizes post production work, so that, in turn, we can reduce costs and production times for clients.”
Masterwork’s custom workstations comprise equipment that pulls together the production components they need for branded storytelling projects, including a workstation running Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, an AJA ColorBox for colour management and AJA GEN10 for sync generation, among other devices and software.
Consistent Workflow
The green screen stage is u-shaped, measuring 6m wide and 3.5m deep. It deploys up to three cameras that send a REDWideGamutRGB (Log) SDI signal of the talent and the green screen to its keyer while a PC sends another SDI signal transporting the Unreal Engine virtual camera feed that also uses REDWideGamutRGB (Log). The REDWideGamutRGB camera colour space is standardised to encompass all colours a RED camera can generate without clipping, and the Log3G10 log curve encodes camera data in this colour space for subsequent grading and transformation to HDR, SDR or other log encodings.
The keyer receives the camera signal as the foreground feed and keys out the flat-looking green backdrop, leaving an alpha foreground layer of the talent. The same keyer also receives the Unreal Engine SDI signal as the background feed and applies the 3D environment file as the background layer of the foreground keyed talent.
Because both foreground and background signals are REDWideGamutRGB, the composited image on the keyer has the same flat look. Biro’s team sends that flat video signal via SDI to an AJA ColorBox and uses Assimilate Live Looks software to colour correction and grading. Live Looks supports on-set video monitoring and live grading with I/O functionality to and from AJA hardware while preserving any metadata capture.
The operators then send the graded output to the director’s and talent’s confidence monitors using the ColorBox SDI output, and the loop out to a focus puller. This consolidated workflow keeps the process simple and latency low.
When Simpler is Better
“Whether on a virtual production or a traditional set, there’s something magical about being able to use a device like ColorBox to upload a LUT and get a rough view of how things will look, plus have the control to tweak the colour and contrast in real time. It gives you an extra layer of confidence as you light the scene and confirm that you structured it the right way,” he said.
“I also love that ColorBox is integrated with so many great colour grading and correction tools to support live grading on set, and that I can export changes to a LUT or a grade and send them down the pipeline in post to editors and colourists. It’s very useful.”
ColorBox also saves the team time because they’re able to do everything on the computer without first having to process the 4:2:2 10-bit signal they’re shooting. The device receives the feed and outputs the exact same signal with its LUT. Biro’s team can do an SDI loop out or pass through, sending a split signal from the ColorBox to two recorders – one with the colour grade, and the original signal as it comes out of the compositing server.
Synching Signals
Alongside ColorBox, Masterwork Films uses an AJA GEN10 sync generator because its camera and lens trackers have genlock and SDI reference inputs. Biro said, “Before GEN10, the background would stutter when we’d move the cameras. I quickly found that we needed a device to synchronize all these devices doing genlock, so I installed GEN10 and the stuttering disappeared. It has made a huge difference.”
The GEN10 is an extremely flexible SD, HD and AES sync generator with seven outputs that include two groups of independently controlled SD/HD sync outputs and an AES-11 output. All of these outputs can be switched between numerous format options. All outputs are in sync with each-other, sourced from an accurate master time base.
Diversifying the Options
Biro anticipates that client demand for more distinctive backdrops for brand videos will continue to grow, a primary reason for creating the studio. “We saw Masterwork as a way to help diversify the look and feel of projects, especially for our more consistent clients, without it costing an arm and a leg like most LED studios do,” he noted. “So far, they like the variety of options we can accommodate at an affordable price, as there aren’t many non-LED options in the south of the UK.”
For now, he’s watching AI developments related to virtual production, game development and motion tracking. “We’re heading into a very disruptive world, especially with the advent of generative AI,” he said. “Virtual production presents an opportunity where AI, green screen and motion tracking developments can converge to truly reshape how we create content. As we experience this shift and take on more new clients, it’s very likely that we’ll take more of our studio equipment like ColorBox on location, where I can see it being useful for real time visualization of grading and colour correction.” www.aja.com
